


Divine Work

by Nui (Nuiihren)



Series: Curse of Strahd Shorts Collection [10]
Category: Curse of Strahd - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:33:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28294620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nuiihren/pseuds/Nui
Summary: The Abbot's work on Vasilika is complete! Behold the perfect woman. But did he create a perfect woman for Strahd or for himself?
Relationships: Abbot/Vasilika
Series: Curse of Strahd Shorts Collection [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2031067
Kudos: 7





	Divine Work

Remains of souls still twitched on his fingertips. Splintered and mindless, but so reluctant to accept the inevitability of their decay. Flesh golems were still cleaning his laboratory, a strong alcoholic smell sipping into the adjacent room through the door crack. Yet, his own work was done. 

“Yeah, she’s easy on the eye alright,” Clovin said.

She was so much more than that, the Abbot knew. But Clovin always struggled with expressing himself accurately, and it was descriptive language that especially failed him.

“I thank you for your kind words,” Vasilika smiled. Her voice was most melodic and soft, reminding the Abbot of angelic tunes he heard at home. _Home._ Such a human word. No, just his plane of origin.

Clovin grunted, while his smaller head let out a hissing snore in its sleep. The Abbot had never let himself be distracted by senseless aesthetics, but looking at his two creations next to each other, he had to admit his own eyes were more drawn to Vasilika than to Clovin. Surprisingly so, maybe. But it had to be a sign of a work well-done. After all, Vasilika’s outward appearance, not at all an inefficient decoration, carried a distinctive purpose.

“You may leave,” the Abbot told him. The two-headed man instantly obliged, rushing out of the room - having realised, of course, that it was time for him to start cooking. Dutiful as always.

“Goodbye,” Vasilika called out to the closing door, so graceful and polite. She turned her head to the Abbot then: “Is there anything you need of me, my love?”

Naturally, such way of address was meant for Strahd, but it was undoubtedly prudent to test this modus operandi beforehand. The Abbot examined the effect of her tone. It felt good the way she spoke, he found. As far as he could judge, she sounded just like a woman from one of the many books he read for his research or the few fitting people he observed. There was a kind and carrying soul inside her, of course. One with experience in love. He’d chosen its parts most wisely.

“We may converse like lovers,” he proposed.

Romance was still a component of Vasilika’s functions the Abbot felt eluded him somewhat. The theory of it was complex and illogical, while its importance could not be understated. Humans were strange creatures that way. He tried his best with it, naturally, and his best was bound to be near-perfect by definition, but if ever he experienced doubt about anything, it was this.

“Of course, I always love talking to you,” a smile appeared on Vasilika’s perfectly symmetrical face as she stepped closer, taking his smooth hands in her no less delicate ones. Something about her gaze filled the Abbot with a disturbingly inexplicable sense of calm. “How was your day, my love? Please, tell me all about it.”

No one had ever asked the Abbot how his day went. It was a strange question when not meant to inform, yet there was something pleasant about it when Vasilika’s flawlessly positioned eyes supported it with an expression of true care and interest.

“It has been good so far, thank you for asking. I have progressed with my work in a satisfying manner.”

“With your work… meaning, with me?”

“That is so.”

“I’m so happy to hear you like me!” her eyes glittered with tears in the most beautiful way. Not tears of pain at all. How strange it was to find such a vast difference between the two. She stroked his cheek. “It’s all I ever wanted, for you to be pleased with me! Come, sit down, my darling, you must be so tired.”

He wasn’t. He didn’t think he was until she said it. But he’d been working for a long time… such a long time indeed. And now he was done. There was something sad about it, in a way. Something too final. She pulled him into a chair and placed herself into his lap. Her autumn-leave hair brushed his face. How wonderful it smelled. _Like the sun. Like a singing sky. Like god’s light. Like home._

Was there such a thing as home?

“I, too, like many things about you,” Vasilika said, a long finger tracing the shape of his lips. “Your serious face, your focused eyes, your caring hands...” her own hands moved to his hair, her voice loving and sad. “And your heart… it is so pained, my poor beloved… let me make your heart be at peace again…”

Peace… yes, peace was what he lacked. He’d forgotten all about it, yet Vasilika’s touch brought the faintest trace of it back, strange as that seemed. A memory of the divine, of Lathander’s love. He felt his body respond to it in a strange manner. 

“And your mind…”, she continued, unfastening the hooks on his robe with meticulous coordination. How well he’d constructed her! “I love your mind… you’re so brilliant, my love, so determined to get what you want.”

“What I need,” he corrected her, “I never want, I do only what needs to be done.”

“And you need me, do you not?” Vasilika whispered, eyes begging for him to say yes.

His heart was beating at an unusual rate. Should he try to reattach it differently? Hearts tended to fail on human bodies after a while. But no, it wasn’t that bad. Not at all. A light was filling him. A euphoria, still familiar, but so different.

“I do,” he said, struggling to take in everything he felt at the perfection he created. Her eyes shone with the brightest of energies.

He meant for his plan, of course. That was the purpose of her existence. But maybe he still needed to tweak something on her. Understand if she really functioned as she was supposed to. That was the right way, after all. Divine work was eternal.


End file.
